Stockholm

I can’t believe it’s been 2 years since I was in Stockholm! Time has flown by 😀 It is such a cool city, very cultural and so many nice places and buildings, it’s urbanised but has so much greenery and of course water. I was lucky the weekend I was away the weather was so good, I do remember it raining on my last night but that was all. The above pic is in Stureplan, close to where my hotel was 🙂 If you are looking for somewhere to go for a city weekend break I can recommend it. There’s lots to do, from the upscale bars, shops and restaurants in the Stureplan area, to Gamla Stan (the Old Town) with it’s many narrow streets and plenty of museums if that’s your thing. You can see what I got up to in my Stockholm weekend here.

Shit! I cannot believe where the time goes! It was around a year ago I was on my way to Stockholm, Sweden for my amazing little city break. It was such a long journey, which started in Newcastle getting the 04:45 train from Newcastle to Kings Cross, from there on a Tube to Heathrow, then on a plane to Stockholm airport, then a train to Stockholm Central Station, and then on the T-Bana (Metro) to the closest T-Bana station, and finally on foot to my hotel…What a journey! 😀

And I have to say it was well worth it and I’d do it again in a heartbeat…Actually I almost certainly will do some time in the future 🙂 Scenic, nice people, cool lifestyle, cool nightlife and bars, it’s a nice city 🙂

In a way it feels like yesterday, in another it feels like a lifetime ago…Aaah Stockholm I miss you!

Thanks for your questions and emails, so I will answer a couple of questions for you. Bear in mind I have only been to Stockholm once so I am hardly an expert, just writing what I found 🙂

It is expensive?

I should say so! Being in the UK we always hear of Scandinavian countries being expensive, I always thought it would be, but did not expect it to be that expensive. I have been to London and Amsterdam, I found Amsterdam to be really expensive, and Stockholm is more than that! Hotels are average for a capital city, but the general living expenses are high; Eating out, drinking, and so on. Taxi to the airport was around £40. My general rule was that most things were around twice the price than the UK (check the beer/alcohol below). Even buying the usual souvenirs I ended up spending around £30 which was a lot considering I only got a few small items.

What about bars, are they expensive?

Yep! A bottle of beer was just over £5, everywhere I went including the hotel bar in Stureplan. If you want anything extravagant then expect to pay a lot more; For example vodka and Redbull was anywhere from £10-15, cocktails anything around the £12 and upwards mark. This was around the Södermalm area in a few different places.

Strange rules?

You can only buy alcohol from designated places and only at certain times! For example these are closed on Sundays, so you cannot buy alcohol at all! (unless you go to a bar/club/restaurant). The places which sell alcohol are called Systembolaget. Other places might sell it but it’s weak like 2% ABV or something. So if you plan on buying alcohol for a party or for your hotel don’t leave it until Sunday or you will be disappointed.

I HAD to take my jacket off in one bar. This was weird. It’s like a cloakroom but mandatory, you have no choice. I am not sure if this was just that particular bars rule or not, I guess it was. And you have to pay for the privilege too. This is actually much better, because everyone has to do the same, so people seemed more chilled and danced much more without big coats and jackets on 😀

How do you get from the airport to Stockholm centre/back

There is a bus, a taxi too, but I got the Arlanda Express, a train which goes from the airport terminal straight to Stockholm Central Station. This costs around £26 and is the quickest way to get to the centre of Stockholm, taking around 20 minutes. I got a Taxi back from my hotel to the airport which was a lot slower, that cost £40.

How do you get around Stockholm? Is it big?

I don’t think it is too big. If you like to walk then you can walk around a lot to different places and they are not too far. I got the Stockholm Metro aka tunnelbana from Stureplan to Gamla Stan, but walked back. The Tunnelbana is probably the best and easiest way of getting around, depending on where you want to go, much like the Tube in London. There are also buses and trams, but boats are also used a lot since there are many islands.

What is the airport like?

I flew to and from Arlanda, the biggest (and “main”) airport for Stockholm. It’s pretty decent size, not huge and not tiny. Arrivals you are sort of upstairs and have to go down to baggage claim and through passport control then you are out to the terminal and there are a few shops. Departures there is a very large departure style shop with all the usual things in it, and places to eat etc. I did notice it was really really clean.

What is the money like?

Strange at first. The current exchange rate is around 10kr/£1 so if you have 100kr (which you will have a lot of) that is around £10. It is just odd when you buy stuff and it costs x-hundred kr and you are thinking it’s a huge amount for just a drink On the plus side it is easy once you get over that, because you just knock the ‘0’ off. They only seem to have 500kr and 100kr notes and nothing in the middle (there are 20 and 50 notes too), which is not good. They need a 200kr note, like our £20 note (I think they are getting this in the future?)

Snacks and drinks – Are there places to get these?

Yeah, Stockholm has 7Eleven’s everywhere! This was sort of a novelty for me since I am from the UK and we don’t have them here, and they are so popular and famous in America it was cool to go to one. Like everything else they are quite expensive in comparison to the UK counterparts. McDonalds is also not too cheap, over £2 for large fries 😛

What culture of people are around?

In terms of tourists I found that I heard so many Americans, they seemed to be everywhere! I did not hear much British English being spoken, maybe only by two or three people over the whole weekend. There were some German speaking people, maybe some other Scandinavian too, but mostly Swedish people enjoying Stockholm 🙂

Do many people speak English?

I spoke to a few people in stores, restaurants, bars, random Swedish people and everyone speaks English, and pretty good too. Most of the time their English is so good you’d forget you were talking to someone who doesn’t speak English as a first language 😀

So I was at Arlanda airport last week flying out of Stockholm, ahhh the memories. I was at terminal 5 of Arlanda, which deals with the international flights. The airport is actually quite small, not as small as Newcastle, but not huge, quite a nice size actually.

I was in departures and went to duty free to pick up some things, I got my Chanel Allure and I picked up some vodka. The vodka was Smirnoff Espresso, I had never seen it before so I was excited to get it; Apparently you can only get it from duty free if the label on the shelf is to be believed.

I went to pay and the guy tells me “We cannot sell alcohol if you are travelling within the EU, it’s the law”. WTF!?!? I could not believe it. Sweden is so strict with their alcohol laws, it won’t even let me take it out the country! Apparently it is true, at least according to their website, they do not sell alcohol if you are flying within the EU.

I like Arlanda airport though, it’s nice, friendly people, and very clean. When I arrived one of the first things I noticed about it was how clean it was!

I brought home a few presents from Stockholm, you know, the typical tourist souvenirs which you can pick up on holiday to remind you that you were there. I brought home a few things for people, and I got myself a couple of things too. A picture calendar, some boxers, a badge and wristband and a shot glass.

I also went to the Hard Rock Cafe and picked up a t-shirt to add to my little Hard Rock t-shirt collection. I now have: Edinburgh, Dublin, Sharm El Sheik, Amsterdam and Stockholm. I like to try and get different style and designs, so this is the one I got from Stockholm…

At Arlanda airport I bought myself a fragrence, why not I have not for a long time 😉 I tried the Chanel Allure homme sport Extreme and it was really nice so I picked up a bottle. Nice bottle, really nice smell, quite a strong kind of smell but is really nice.

I was so busy sight-seeing and walking around Stockholm that I actually did no real shopping at all! I went to a little shop in Gamla Stan to buy a couple of souvenirs, but other than that I did not buy anything such as high end fashion, although Stockholm does have a lot to offer. It was both strange and cool to be within a 10 minute walk from my place to Louis Vuitton, Gucci, Mulberry and others.

I was right next to Sture gallerian which is home to many cool places, but I did not have any time to go in. I did however take a couple of pics.

Something which Stockholm has a LOT of which we do not have in the UK are 7Elevens. They are everywhere, and I did go to a couple to pick up a few things like snacks and drinks.

So day 3 was Sunday, my last real day in Stockholm and it was probably the most “tourist” of days I had. Despite only having around 3 hours sleep, I went out and did the tourist thing once again 😀 I went to Gamla Stan (The Old Town) and saw a lot…I was walking around for so long and walked so far, going around Gamla Stan, Slussen and ended up around the Central Station before heading for something to eat back in Stureplan. My feet and legs were already hurting, by the end of the day I was dead

Gamla Stan is so cool, there are just endless tiny streets to walk up and down, it really is a maze of an old town.

The second part of my Stockholm Saturday I spent in and around Djurgården. It is a nice green area with plenty of water and things to see. There are a lot of museums and attractions such as the Vasamuseet, Aqueria, Gröna Lund, the Nordic Museum and more. I was considering going into the Vasamseet but the queue was absolutely huge! I went back after an hour or so and the queue was exactly the same!

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Welcome to Michael 84, my blog about men’s fashion and lifestyle. I write about topics which we all love, including style, male grooming, travel, fragrance and tech, as well as the latest trends in menswear. Sharing my passion with clothing, from high street to high end brands.